National Australia Bank (NAB) has forecast operational cost reductions of $22 million over seven years as it consolidates 20 data centres and computer rooms down to two facilities in Melbourne.

Speaking at a media briefing in Sydney, NAB CTO Denis McGee said that the new data centre in Deer Park will be officially unveiled on 12 February. However, the facility won't be fully operational until Q4 of 2013 as the bank continues its data centre consolidation program. It de-commissioned three legacy data centres in the last 12 months.

NAB signed a long-term lease with Digital Realty Trust in Q4 of 2011 to take space in the vendor's Melbourne data centre. The bank also operates an existing data centre in Knox.

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"That [consolidation] will have a substantial impact on our use of energy. The 20 data centres consume about 40 per cent of the bank's energy," McGee said.

He added that the Deer Park facility will deliver a carbon reduction of 3200 tonnes and a power saving of 9.1 million kilowatts per hour over the next 10 years for the bank.

According to McGee, the power utilisation efficiency (PUE) will be less than 1.3 PUE at the new data centre.

"The program will ultimately reduce NAB's technology usage by 40 per cent when we consolidate all of those data centres."

NAB is currently four years into its NextGen IT transformation program which includes an overhaul of its core banking system, applications, infrastructure and networks.

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